To Do Lists for Managers

This article is a compilation of learning from the book, To-Do List Formula by Damon Zahariades*, as well as wisdom I have been given by experienced people in my journey to manage the deluge of things that must be done and you want to do.

I just finished reading To-Do List Formula. I have been working on a to-do list strategy for several years, having even taken a course on managing priorities at Samsung. Those with an entrepreneurial mindset also have an eye to pick up important actions that do not have an official owner in an organization. Once prioritized I have found it useful to regularly review these with my upchain and prioritize what they would like done if it's different than what I am doing. So, needless to say, I am not new to evaluating the techniques and I know much of what works for me and what doesn't.

This book is more a series of evaluations and a map to achieve what would work for you rather than a specific recipe. I found it was exactly what I needed - it highlighted logically why some techniques did not work for me, and how to address them.

I highly recommend reading this book.

If you manage people, whether you are a manager, or executive or CEO you must read this book.

Some great soundbites: 

If you don't know how much effort and/or time an activity will take, ask someone who knows. -- Damon Zahariades. Maybe the employee you hired for that expertise. Don't guess from your perceived experience, particularly if you have never actually done it.

If you give an action item to an employee and don't specify a relative priority then you give the employee free reign to prioritize among their other duties. Do not blame them if that is different from your view. -- Director from Microchip.

If you give an action item to an employee, be prepared to trade priority with another of higher value if you want it done immediately. Otherwise, accept a forward completion date. -- Sr. Director from IDT.

Why is this reading so important for senior people and executives? When you review your list of things to do, formally or subconsciously you segregate them into:

- important , urgent

- important, not urgent

- not important, urgent

The value of doing a proper to do list is that you see the fourth category and can dismiss those activities: not important, not urgent; and "they help you get your important work done"*. By not doing a list, everything is a myriad of noise in you brain that is stressing you to get completed. "Studies show that chronic stress and fear can literally change how the brain functions."* Generally, experienced people will delegate the not important but urgent activities to subordinates. Here is the rub.

By not having done a to do list and not knowing the proper relative importance and effect on critical projects, you fall victim to the dangers inherent in the soundbites above. That is, you may delegate an unimportant activity, but then by not prioritizing or knowing the actual effort, you may disrupt important project activities, or berate an employee for not delivering when you didn't evaluate the to do priorities of their efforts.

Of course an employee can push back, but if you haven't done your own homework you may fall back to your perception of a short duration task - see soundbite 1.

A proper to do strategy takes some time at the beginning of the week and the end of the day. This time is much less than would otherwise be wasted in ineffective use of time though. Another valuable outcome of this is that by using a 1-3 or 1-3-5 or other technique, you can pat yourself on the back at the end of the day for a good effort completed, and with time left over, work on self improvement without any guilt. Win, win, win, and stress free self improvement.

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Science explains the “what”. Engineering is the “how” of making it. Product marketing management involves understanding the science and defining the engineering to bring a solution to market that answers "why" people will want it and use it – My name is Mark Wright and THAT is my Passion!